About Us

HER EXCELLENCY KAREN-MAE C. HILL, OBE

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA’S HIGH COMMISSIONER TO THE UNITED KINGDOM

High Commissioner Karen-Mae Hill is a barrister by profession who has worked for over 15 years in the banking and financial services sector before taking up her appointment as High Commissioner to the Court of St. James’s with extraordinary and plenipotentiary powers in 2016. She is concurrently Antigua and Barbuda’s Non-Resident Ambassador to Malta, Ireland, the Federal Republic of Germany, Estonia, and Lithuania. Her Excellency is the youngest person and first female to be appointed to these positions. Her areas of professional interest include financial services regulation, the blue economy, trade, and advocacy for the recognition of the inherent vulnerabilities of small states. She is a widely sought-after speaker in these areas. High Commissioner Hill has identified the empowerment of youth, persons with disabilities, and music as key areas of social focus, leveraging these initiatives as a force for social mobility and harmony.

Among her many achievements as Antigua and Barbuda’s most senior diplomat in Europe, she devised the now-established, ‘Antigua and Barbuda – UK Business Forum’, which takes place annually. Under her stewardship, the diplomatic mission in London became the first office to administer citizenship oaths, the template for which is now used by all Antiguan and Barbudan missions and consulates worldwide. Her Excellency also plays a key role on the International Steering Committee for the development of the ‘Centre for Oceanography and the Blue Economy’ at The University of the West Indies Five Islands campus in Antigua and Barbuda. She also played a pivotal role in securing the funding and fully supported the plans to establish ‘The Harrison Centre Antigua and Barbuda Institute of Continuing Education’, a second chance programme focused on TVET skills.

High Commissioner Hill is the founder and chair of the current Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra, which was established in 2018. An avid fan of cricket, High Commissioner Hill has also developed a successful under-19 cricket exchange programme between cricket clubs in the United Kingdom and Antigua and Barbuda, in partnership with the Minister of Sports.

High Commissioner Hill is a Rhodes Scholar who studied Development Studies at the University of Oxford as a member of St. Peter’s College. She is also an Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn Prince of Wales Scholar and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2004 and to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean following completion of the Bar conversion course at the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica. High Commissioner Hill is an accomplished pianist and speaks fluent French. Her Excellency was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King’s 2023 New Year’s Honours List for services to youth and the arts.